Redux
by StormsThing1
Summary: The trio plus butler fell into a time of peace, watching the eras and fads pass them by, untouched by time and it's passing. When new challenges and old challengers come back to play and mingle in with technology, that time of peace is ruined.
1. Chapter 1

"Oh! I'll be back in just one second!" The small girl with corkscrew golden curls and emerald green eyes squealed in pure delight

"Where are you going?" the smaller boy with black hair with a natural blue tinge and a eye patch covering his right eye hardly looked up from his Sudoku puzzle.

"It's a surprise!" the girl winked at him and opened the sunroof. "I think you'll like it." she added before struggling to get from her seat to the opening without having her shiny new black shoes touch the sticky floor. Finally she managed to get out and close the shade over the opening, she knew the boy detested sitting in the car with the sun bearing down on him.

It was then that the boy looked up at the roof concerned. Why? Not because a fourteen-year-old girl had just climbed out the roof of a vehicle moving at sixty miles a hour, oh heavens no. He was sure she had her own reasons, he had never gotten how the girl who's one year older than him's mind worked. She would be fine either way. It wasn't even because she had been polite enough to put the shade back down after she had climbed out, no it was because there was not one but _two_ sunroofs on this limo. One in the passenger's area and one in the drivers area, completely blocked off from the passenger area. "Hmm." he sighed to himself and looked back down at his puzzle. That's a nine. He heard heavy steps tromp down the length of the limo. That's an eight.

Lady Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Midford, or Lizzy as she was known now that all titles like 'Lady' 'Lord' and 'Earl' had lost meaning in society, ran down the length of the limousine, smiling all the way. Ciel was going to love the gift she had planned out for his birthday. She loved that gift he had given her all those years ago, and she wanted to repay him for that. It happened many years ago, but it hadn't faded from her memory one bit. She thought back to that night, when it all changed and she received that present, the one she would never stop trying to repay him for.

_She ran into her room, eyes filled with tears making the overly large pink room swoon. Her legs gave out once she reached her regal four post bed. It was awful, her heart felt crushed. She loved Ciel. All she wanted was to make him smile, even though she had to admit she over did it sometimes. She worked hard to become a wife that could protect him, but also one he could protect. But they just received news that... that Ciel had... died._

_He had died under mysterious pretenses, and Sebastian, his ever loyal butler, had disappeared along with him. It was only a couple of months before he was going to turn fourteen, and she was going to turn fifteen shortly after. She was planning on hosting a huge party for him, but now, he was gone. She refused to believe it. He couldn't be dead! She had seen him just that morning! Although, he was acting a bit odd, cryptic, like he was trying to distance himself from others, but he was alive, alive! And then they received the letter along with a Funtom Company lollipop. Ciel Phantomhive, died aged thirteen in August 1889. At least, that's what she thought it said. The words were floating around, swirling and mixing with tears, making it impossible to read the fancy cursive on the card. _

_"__Ciel," she whispered into her pillow. "Ciel, Ciel, Ciel, Ciel!" she cried, each time getting a little louder until she was yelling his name into her pillow._

_"__Yes?" a cool voice answered her screams from across the room. "You summoned me?" he asked her._

_"__C-Ciel?" she looked up from her pillow, hearing that voice that soothed her aching heart. But he was dead! He couldn't be in here, talking to her, but still... "Is it really you?" she whispered. Whipping her head around to catch a glimpse of the boy whom she believed to be an apparition._

_"__Yes, its me." he pulled a lock of dark blue hair away from his eye patch. "For real." he added, anticipating her next question. He grinned playfully, as it reminded him of about three years ago when he reappeared after the manor burnt down the first time._

_"__Oh, Ciel!" she jumped into his lap, crying. "I though you were dead," her words were muffled by his chest, as she hugged him tight, worried that he might slip through and disappear again._

_"__Yes, that is the story we fed everyone." he agreed. He was practically dead, no real soul,, barely any heartbeat, no need for oxygen. He righted the girl bustling over with tears. He took a cloth out of his pocket and proceeded to wipe all the tears off her face. "Really, you must stop crying over every little thing. it is not very lady like to go walking around with a blotchy red face, and snot streaming out of her nose." he sighed. "And so, what is you wish?" he discreetly stood on his tip-toes too look her in the eye._

_She laughed. Obviously, there is no discreet way of standing on your tip-toes to look a person in the eye, "My... wish?" she looked up at him curiously._

_"__Oh..." he cooed to her like she was a little girl again, like back when he was five and she was six and taller than him, but he still acted like the parent, like the older of the two. "You summoned me without a wish in mind." he tweaked one of her disheveled curls gently. "How unprofessional." he laughed gently._

_"__My wish..." she trailed off she looked up determined. Her tearful eyes had a new found fire in them. "I want to be with you forever!" she decided, knowing that was the one thing she wanted in the world after the incident of is pseudo-death. _

_The blue haired boy laughed at her childishness. "Are you sure you want that?" he cocked his head to the side playfully. "I've been told I can be a real pain after a while."_

_"__It's what I want!" the girl called, afraid that if she didn't speak up now the boy would disappear forever._

_"__Oh, well..."_

Lizzy smiled. She crouched down and ripped open the sunroof in the drivers section. "Hi, Jeeves!" she called to the driver, who certainly wasn't named Jeeves. "I'll be taking the wheel from here, so if you would get out..." she reached in and grabbed the trembling man by the collar. "Now remember, when jumping from a moving vehicle, TUCK AND ROLL!" she tossed him off to the side. She winced at the cracking sound his leg made. "That's because you didn't tuck and roll!"

She climbed into the drivers area. "Huh," she giggled to herself, "Maybe I should have learned what all these things do before I threw the driver out." she shrugged. Okay so this pedal makes it go forward? No, that made it slow down, saved for future reference. Not really, why would she slow down? After a second of an experimental and bumpy ride she had all the controls figured out. Her eyes scanned the road carefully, looking for the little dirt side road. There it was. She made a sharp right turn at speeds so high, she thought the car might just tip over. It didn't thankfully, and they continued on their way.

When the driver flew past his window and then again when the limo pitched to the right, Ciel looked up from his puzzle. When he saw the road they were taking his stomach dropped to the ground and was left behind by the speeding car. The small dirt pathway looked just as it did fifty years ago, like not a soul had traveled down this path since the last time he did. Just seeing the road brought back memories from the 1880's, when he had last traveled down this path. He looked down at the news paper, skimming the headlines for any mention of this place. The main headline read, 'Year 1934 Coming to a Close, What Waits in the Future' there was no mention of this place in the news. Too soon the car stopped parked inside the drive of an extravagant manor.

"Ciel!" Lizzy cried running from the drivers' area over to him. She was beaten by a tall raven-haired man in a long black tail coat with startling red eyes. "Oh, Sebastian," she whispered.

"I'll take this, Lady Elizabeth." he smiled, opening the door.

"O-of course." she stuttered, curtsying. She turned to look at Ciel who was climbing down from the car. "Isn't it wonderful! It looks just like it did back when we were little!" she cried, hugging him close. She began to mutter something but trailed off, lost in memories.

"Ciel!" a high-pitched boy's voice called down from the manor's large porch.

"A-Alois Trancy?" Ciel looked up at the boy in surprise. He looked just like he did a half a century ago. He wore a long purple frock coat, a forest green vest over a white dress shirt. He wore long black stockings, brown high heeled boots and ,of course, his signature shorty-short booty shorts. His platinum blonde hair had gotten a little longer and his silvery-blue eyes glinted cleverly.

"Yes." the boy smiled as he opened the door. "And welcome, to the Phantomhive manor."

The manor looked just as it had when Ciel lived in it, some fifty years ago. Walking through the manor dug up unpleasant memories of his childhood. Of the fire that killed both his parents on his tenth birthday. Of all the death the house had witnessed. Of the fire that burned down the house a second time, just before Claude stole his soul from Sebastian. Of how he abandoned the house after he became a demon. It was obvious the servants hadn't heeded his advice about burning it down again. The only differences were minor, things overlooked. The home had been updated to have all the best technologies the early 20th century had to offer. All the closets were fully stocked with clothes- either from the Victorian era, of the present day. Lizzy had obviously been the one picking the outfits. There was too much pink and not enough booty shorts for it to be Alois.

"So, do you like it?" Lizzy had been quietly standing by the small boy's side as he explored the house of his child hood, restored once again. She had stood as quiet as possible before, not even daring to breathe as he inspected every room carefully, only speaking up now because she couldn't read his face. "Alois and I met up here one day- I came here a lot, I missed this place it was a big part of our childhood- we both agreed it was a shame how it had been neglected. We both decided to fix it up and, eventually, started working together on it. I'm the one who decided to make it a birthday present to you." she smiled faintly. "And so, we fixed it up to look just as it did." she looked down at her low heeled shoes, blushing slightly.

She looked over at Ciel, the poor thirteen-year-old had been through so much in his long lifetime. First he was only ten years old when the manor burned down, killing both of his parents. He'd then disappeared for months. Even though they hadn't found a body for him, they all assumed he had died in the fire, and so they gave him a grave right next to his parents. Lizzy went there every day, praying for him to return. She was only eleven, so she really didn't get what it meant that he was never coming back. But one day to everyone's surprise, he reappeared. He was different, than the kindhearted little boy she had grown up with, though. For one, he was toting around his black clad butler, and he had stopped smiling. He was forced to take on an adult role so young, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. So he tried desperately to be seen as an adult be society. To help him, Lizzy stopped wearing heeled shoes, so that he wouldn't be seen in public with his fiancee towering over him. As a result, he acted like an adult and never smiled, but she had noticed the boy softened around her. It was her hope that one day, he would start smiling again. That was her goal. To see his beautiful smile just once more.

"Since when does Alois do things for others, from the kindness in his heart?" Ciel asked as they were out of earshot of the boy, but he still barely made a sound- just enough for Lizzy to hear him. The boy was infamous for spying. He could hear, in the distance, the bimbo blonde babbling to the tall man. Something about a box with moving pictures inside, like a radio but with pictures in full color to compliment it. Nonsense.

"I don't know." Lizzy answered. She didn't really know Alois that well before meeting him in the manor, a little over a year ago. She had met him once at a costume party, and from what she could tell, that ended up(ultimately) in blood shed for the two boys. She was able to pick up enough context clues to know that they didn't like each other much, and that Alois apparently did everything according to his own secret agenda. "He seems...different, nicer than he was. He's changed. I've noticed many what would be called 'mental disorder' tendencies and is full of stress and a bad case of the crazies. But he seems nicer to people, to everything really. I honestly don't know what happened to change him...them." she cast her eyes down, mimicking the quiet tone of the short boy.

"Them?" he looked over at her, shocked that she had used a plural term when talking about one person..

"Yeah..." she looked over to see her companion's face had paled. "Oh. No, there's only us here its just... uh.. it's really complicated. You'll see later." she shrugged, leaving it off at that with the boy with stunted growth fuming.

"Hey guys!" the blonde menace himself squealed, throwing himself between the other two, completely ruining the serious mood. "What'cha talking about, all quiet like?"

"Hmmmm." Ciel sighed, obviously ticked at the little thing. "About how on earth you could be here, Sir, I stabbed you with a sword fifty years ago?"

"Ohhh." Alois got real quiet all of a sudden, and fell back behind them a couple meters.

Lizzy focused on the hall ahead of them and felt her pulse speed up as she saw one specific door- and Ciel's hand reaching for it.

"Oh!" she squeaked throwing herself between his hand and the door. "Before you open this door, while we were fixing the place up, we decided we should have places to put our things while we worked- like a bedroom. _I_ just put my stuff in the dressers and closets. Alois, however..." she stepped to the side, thus letting the boy open the door, and then she instantly regretted it.

The small boy's visible eye opened wide, filled with rage. Lizzy backed to the opposite side of the hallway. She had seen that look before, and it was often linked to bad happenings. She thought on it too hard and was sucked into another memory fit, where she relived moments in her past.

_Ciel looks so cute! She thought looking up the manors stairs, and seeing the boy, her fiancee like many couples in that time they were betrothed at birth, as nobles married nobles, wearing the blue suit she had picked out for him. She caught sight of a large blue diamond ring on his thumb. Where is the ring she bought him? Where? She yanked it off his thumb. It was much too large for him, the ring she bought was a perfect fit for him. He then got really angry all of a sudden. She didn't know why. At the time. She got angry and sad. He was so mean! She just wanted him to be happy! In a fit of rage, she threw the ring down, where it crashed on the hard floor and shattered. He got that look in his eye, that angry look and he charged towards her, hand ready to strike. She squealed and cowered away. Luckily Sebastian saved her. That memory was old, before she remembered everything with perfect clarity. She didn't exactly remember what words were said, but that they were and she could remember saying awful things to him._

_The second time, she remembered perfectly._

_"__Lizzy, what are you wearing?" Ciel stared ice daggers at her feet. His voice was layered with nerves, revealing that he was angry, although his face remained completely composed._

_"__What, these?" she smiled and bent her knee inwards, showing off her new pair off high heels. They were light blue with little white stripes and buttons on them. "I saw them while walking around town today! I thought they were really cute, and all the girls are wearing them." she smiled slightly. "I... was hoping a new fashion accessory would help me get used to... what town is this again? New York? Cincinnati?" she mused. They moved around so often those days, and Lizzy never had a chance to get used to a new town._

_"__Chicago." the boy corrected her, "We came here from New York last month."_

_"__Oh, yes." she flushed red and looked down at her heels again, bringing the boy's attention back around to those monstrosities._

_The midget of a boy who would not- could not- grow taller stood up from his large desk and stood next to her, looking up at her. With a giggle she noticed that she dwarfed the boy. On a normal day she is taller than him, by about thirteen centimeters but with the heels, she was easily twenty centimeters taller. Normally he was only barely five feet tall while she was about five foot four. But with the heels she was almost six feet tall, towering over him. The boy was trying so hard to be seen and accepted as an adult, and here she was, his girl cousin obsessed with cute items, and she was much taller than him. He's probably suffering from a bruised ego._

_"__My, my, Ciel. Maybe you should invest in a pair of heels for yourself." she grinned and patted the small boy on his head, taunting him. She was trying to help, to joke around and make him smile his beautiful smile, but teasing someone with a bruised ego is not a good cure._

_His eye filled with the same rage and he brought his hand down on his desk, snapping it in two._

"What exactly happened here, Lizzy?" he turned his head in her direction, looking at both the room an the girl at the same time. She could tell he was struggling to remain calm. "What happened to my manor?"

"In a word: Alois." Lizzy cautiously skirted around the boy to look into the room. All the wallpaper had been exchanged for a lighter tone of blue. The classic, four poster bed had been exchanged for a round mattress sitting in the middle of the room with silken purple sheets draping down it. Gaudy ribbons tied in bunches with flowers- bluebells, she noticed- adorned the walls. It was a catastrophe.

Lizzy noticed Ciel's fingers curl into fists, uncurl, and then re-curl again. She knew what was coming next. She skirted aside, ducking waiting for the blow, not necessarily on her, but anywhere. Coincidentally, at that moment Alois ran into the room, bubbling over with excitement.

Faster than human eyes could trace, Ciel's fist reached out and broke the bimbo blond's nose. Blood dripped out of the wound. "Ow! What the-! why would you do that!? Oh it hurts like-! oh-!" the boy with a now crooked nose let lose a stream-waterfall- of profanity. "Lizzy told me you wouldn't like it at all, but that much! Ow! oh-!" he straightened his nose so it would heal properly, re-breaking it in the process. Just as fast as the last time, Ciel's fist flashed and made contact with the blond's eye, and then a second later with his ear. It was like that for several minutes. Ciel's fist would flash out, hit the boy hard, and then give him a second to get all his profanity out of the way and set his injuries to heal correctly. Never once did an expression other than boredom cross his face. And all that time poor little Lizzy stood in a corner, cowering away from the gruesome scene unraveling before of her.

"This..." Ciel muttered seconds after the last blow had landed home. "This is not the mansion." his visible eye closed, trying to wipe the image of the room from his memory. Unfortunately, it was stuck, permanently ingrained into his perfect memory. "You shouldn't have made this drastic a change without my knowledge."

"I-I'm sorry!" Alois wailed, cowering at the boy's feet. His face was red from dried up blood and tears. "I-I just w-wanted a place I could call mine!" he wiped his snot on the boy's pant leg.

"I'm sorry I didn't do more to stop him!" Lizzy didn't want Alois to bear all the blame, she felt as though she should take _some_ responsibility, it was her choice to revive the manor and oversee that it went well. Tears leaked out of her eyes and streamed down her face. "I tried I really did! But he was so insistent! His argument was really persuasive and honestly it just made my heart break!" the blue haired boy now had two crying buffoons hanging off him.

"However," Ciel butted his way back into the conversation, "Since we'll be living here full-time now, I suppose it is appropriate for you to decorate your rooms, as you please. However, I don't want any monumental changes." he shrugged looking around, "So please, feel free to decorate."

Lizzy looked up at him her teary eyes full of joy. "Since we will... you mean we'll be living here now! Instead of the London town house! And Alois too?" she hugged him, smiling. "Thank you! Thank you!" she squeezed tighter, a normal person's ribs would of cracked.

And so the trio+butler fell into a regular schedule there, one that would carry them on for decades without interruption and little difference. They stood, frozen in time watching the eras float past. Watching fads come and go, watching new technologies appear. All of it floated by, like snowflakes, having their fifteen minutes of fame before falling to the ground, quickly replaced, the new one rendering it obsolete.


	2. Chapter 2

"Ciel, I think we need to go to school again." Lizzy stood in front of the boy's desk, feeling uncomfortable, like an intruder. "It's been a really long time since we last went."

"What? It hasn't been that long." Ciel looked up from a huge pile of paper work, "We graduated just over a decade ago. 2001, I distinctly remember it." he looked at her confused. She needs to get her memory checked, it would have to be 2020 before they even considered going to school again.

Then, to his astonishment, the girl started giggling as though he was the silly one that was remembering wrong. "Oh, no silly!" she cried, doubling over with laughter. Well, dates certainty weren't the boy's forte. "No, not 2001! It was 1991! Silly." she giggled and patted his head. Twice.

"Oh, really?" he counted on his fingers, like he was doing calculations in his head. "Those dates are remarkably similar." a rosy red flush appeared on his cheeks, it was as good as him admitting defeat, which the boy never did. "I don't think that was long ago enough to consider going to school again." he blundered, trying to cover his idiocy.

"Right." Lizzy didn't sound convinced. "But, I think its been a perfect amount of time. The two of us have been maintaining the Funtom Company, so our academic levels have not dropped, as we are supposedly in our forties. Alois, however doesn't have any external academic stimuli, and its showing. He was doing his times tables for whatever reason, probably in an attempt to tutor himself, and he said three times five was _twenty-one_!" She put her head in her hands and began to speak frantically. "Now, I have no idea where that answer came from or why he thought it to be correct, but somehow it made sense in his twisted little mind. He's also been making silly spelling mistakes that someone of his age _(138 mentally, thirteen physically)_ shouldn't be making." she crossed her arms, thinking that she had proved a rather good point.

"Fine, how quickly can the preparations be made?" Ciel introduced his palm to his forehead. Enrolling in school for the three of them got to be a real hassle, as there was only a handful of schools in reasonable distance of them. For starters, all schools they had been to in the last two decades were immediately eliminated, lest someone figure out the three kids hadn't aged a day since the last school term. They then had to double check to make sure none of the staff had encountered them before. Then all the schools data on them in the computers would have to 'mysteriously disappear, the culprit leaving no traces', thanks to their professional hacker, the sweet and innocent little Lizzy. Then they, or at least one of them, would have to come up with a convincing back story on why three mysterious kids are suddenly appearing out of the blue and starting seventh grade- the grade universally agreed on as the one they start at.

"They already have!" Lizzy smiled really wide. "honestly, I only came in here to tell you, because ALOIS who is a WIMP was too AFRAID to face your wrath over why we didn't tell you sooner." she put emphasis on certain words, knowing full well that the boy was standing just outside, his ear pressed up against the door.

"Hey! I'm not a wimp! I wasn't afraid!" Alois' outraged voice came from the other side of the door.

"Says the boy eavesdropping from the other side of a steel plated door." Lizzy called back taunting the boy, while slowly, quietly stalking to the door so the boy wouldn't know she was there.

"Have _you_ felt how hard he can punch? This isn't out of fear of his wrath, it's out of fear for my li-!" his sentence cut off because Lizzy suddenly yanked the door open and he fell in.

"Hello Alois, so glad you could join us!" she taunted him. "I suggest you run now, you've been caught in the act!" she acted startled and pointed. "Eavesdropper!"

"Fine. I'll go now." he stood and high tailed it out of there, dust flying in his wake.

"There, now that that pest is taken care of," Lizzy continued, patting the new dust off of her gown. "We will be attending Barcksland Academy, in the suburbs of London, a roughly ten minute drive from here. The school term starts August 24th. I have ordered a new, completely modern wardrobe for us all, so expect the new clothes in your closet any day now." she smiled "That's about it." she skipped out of the room. Ciel sighed, what was he going to do about that free willed girl?

"Ciiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!" Lizzy wailed loudly on the midnight before school was set to start. Why was it like this every time? "You _can't_ wear those clothes! They look absolutely dreadful! Why won't you wear the outfit I picked out for you? It looks adorable, and it compliments Alois and my outfits perfectly!" she made a puppy dog face, hoping the snot dribbling out of her nose wouldn't ruin it. She had put blood, sweat and tears into making the perfect outfits for everyone, making sure all the clothes looked good together and everything! And now stubborn, dumb Ciel is ruining it all by not wearing the outfit she had chosen, it had taken her a good four hours to find his perfect outfit, not to mention that after that she still had to do Alois and herself.

Alois had gotten into his outfit easily, knowing that struggling would just cause a fight, waste time and all the hard work of resisting would be wasted, as Lizzy always got her way. And besides, he liked the outfit Lizzy had chosen for him. He was wearing a royal purple shirt with a rubber ducky on it (ah, rubber duckies, they mystified him with all their squeaky wonder), a pair of his signature black booty shorts, challenging the dress code and a black leather jacket. Lizzy had let him pick his own shoes, so of course he picked a neon green pair of converse with violet shoe laces. Lizzy had pursed her lips over that one, but she had let him chose for himself and if that's what he wants...

She ran through the halls looking for Ciel. Where did that boy run off to? She looked down at the outfit she was toting around. Was it really that bad? It was a midnight blue, plaid shirt, and dark jeans all the way down to the tops of the the black high tops. There was a light blue sweater to be worn over the shirt. She was positive that Ciel would like it, and look wonderful in it on the first day of school. But he was stopping that from happening by running away from her!

She closed her eyes and let her senses fan out. She could hear Alois in the drawing room, laughing his eyes out and she could also hear hurried footsteps near the guests' hallway where any guests- if the had any- would stay. She noticed he wasn't breathing to avoid making more noise than necessary. But, he was sweating profusely and she could smell that quite easily. Oh yeah, definitely Ciel after gym class. She used the sixth sense to feel his presence, creating and image in her mind as he ran into the fourth guest bedroom on the left and hid in the wardrobe. She ran in his direction, leaving a sonic boom behind. Alois didn't even look up, that was normal behavior. Instead he started laughing harder, knowing that meant she had cornered the poor boy.

Lizzy stood outside of the closet Ciel had locked himself in. "Knock knock, I'm here!" she cried, prying the door open. There he was cowering in a corner. "Wear it." She shoved the clothes in his face.

"Crazy girl!" He shouted and weaved her way around her and out the door. He ran, leaving another sonic boom to shake the house. More tears leaked out of Lizzy's eyes. She just wanted him to look cute! Why did he have to be so mean!

She looked down at her own outfit, eyes blurring everything with tears. She was wearing a knee length baby blue dress with embroidered designs of the same color. She had silver platform shoes and a little white half sweater. Her hair was in it's signature hair style; two curly pigtails. The blue headband had off white and yellow flowers and ribbons.

"I just want you to look cute!" she wailed after a few hours of this nonsense, and broke into horrible wracking sobs. In the middle of the hallway.

Ciel appeared out of nowhere. "Fine, I'll wear the clothes!" he snatched the stack of clothes out of her arms and stalked into a guest room to get changed.

"Yes! Thank you! Thank you!" she shouted, smiling from ear to ear.

"There, you happy?" he walked out of the room, wearing the outfit.

"Oh, yes! I love it! You look even better in that outfit than I thought you would!" she tackle hugged him. "Lets go down to the parlor." Lizzy led the way.

"Why the parlor?" Alois asked, walking up to them, "Why would we need to got to the parlor?"

"Because A) that's where our book bags are and B) You need to know our back story, why we're going to the school." Lizzy smiles fiendishly.

"Alright!" the blonde readily agreed.

"Our stories huh. Knowing you, they're probably some long heart breaking story with events that would probably never happen in real life." Ciel smiled evilly.

"Well of course!" Lizzy acted like she was offended that he would even consider thinking other wise.

"Come on, lets go!" Alois started to tug on Ciel's arm playfully. "Lets go already."

"So, according to the paperwork," Lizzy began once they had all settled in the parlor with tea. "We were all orphaned when we were young. Because of that we also inherited our parents titles as Earl Trancy, Phantomhive and Lady Midford. We all met when we were ten, and have been best friends ever since. Just this past summer, however, we were all adopted by Sebastian, and we now live in the London townhouse. This will be our first year enrolled in a charter school, but we went to public school before that."

"Awesome!" Alois was exited by this, and it wasn't wholly a lie. Ciel had been orphaned when he was ten, Alois when he was eleven. He then spent two years working his way up from being the old Earl Trancy's _plaything_ to being the new Earl, after his 'Father' died, of course. The only one none of that applied to was Lizzy herself. She'd lived that charmed life. She had a caring mother that always urged her to work harder in her fencing, even when she wanted to give up. A kind father who always urged her to look her best, going for cute above all. Her older brother Edward who was overprotective of her, as she was his whole world. She had Aunt Rachel and Uncle Vincent- Ciel's parents- they were like her second set of parents, treating her like a daughter, not just a niece. And there was Aunty An, or Madame Red, who was not related to her at all, but rather Ciel's aunt who was unable to have children of her own, so she substituted with Ciel and Lizzy. It was she who taught Lizzy that ladies should be genteel and love dresses and never be violent.

She also was the one who, she learned this later on, went crazy and killed every woman who had come to her clinic for an abortion. They nowadays called her, and her crime spree 'Jack the Ripper'. The human police never did catch her.

Ciel smiled slightly. "As cunning as always, something _just_ within the limits of possibility."

"Oh, goodness!" Lizzy cried looking down at her digital watch, "If we want to get there on time we have to leave now, and forget a couple of speed limits, unless cops are nearby, of course."

"Yay!" Alois squealed and started jumping up and down while clapping, being the little girl he truly is.

The three raced to the car, hoping to get in in the desired seat that they all loved. Lizzy won, getting the best seat on the very left side, then in the middle was poor Ciel and then last on the right, was Alois. Lizzy and Alois bubbled the whole time, leaning over Ciel and Lizzy even scooted into his lap at one point to talk to Alois better, but she was promptly pushed off. About half way there, after London had come into view, they started to sing a song, one that drove the blunette with heightened hearing _mad_. "School, school, we're going to school!" Over. And over. And over. Finally the wrought iron gates of Barcksland Academy came into view. When the car stopped, Ciel was the first out of the car of insanity.

"C'mon guys! Lets go!" Lizzy squealed happily, skipping towards their homeroom class.

"This is gonna be awesome!" Alois ran up with her.

"Yeah," Ciel agreed halfheartedly. "It'll be fun."

"You bet it will! Don't doubt the awesomeness that this year will bring!" Lizzy shouted joyfully. "It'll be-" her voice cut short for no apparent reason as she walked into the room. Ciel wondered how this could be, as almost nothing shocked the girl. Then he walked into the room.

Then he saw _her_.

She had chin length dark brown hair that got lighter as it reached the tips, which made her hairpin stand out even more. Everything else in the room faded away as Ciel stared at the familiar design on the hairpin.

It was an upside down pentagram- two points up, a symbol usually linked with black magic- with two circles around it. There was a inner circle, connecting all the points together, and an outer circle with a bunch of little tick marks going around it. It was glowing purple and glowed brighter with every step he took closer to the girl. The symbol perfectly matched up with the Faustian contract ingrained in his right eye- that was the whole reason he wore the eye patch. A Faustian contract is the symbol that proves you have made a contract with a demon, as Ciel had with Sebastian after his home burned down and he was sold on the black market like a animal, like a toy and finally, almost sacrificed. _So why did this girl have the symbol on a hairpiece?_

The hairpin stood out to Alois, he had seen Ciel without his eye patch and, come on, _it was glowing_. But amazingly, that wasn't what grabbed his attention. It was her choker necklace. There was a symbol on it, one that sent chills up and down his spine. It brought him back to the days when he was kept in the old man's basement, as one of his _dolls_. Of when he was 'captured by faeries'. Of, after the old man died, sitting in his new room in front of the mirror, looking at his tongue and seeing that mark, proving it wasn't all a dream. Even if he wanted it to be.

It was another pentagram with two points up. This one had it so the points of the star were a light golden, and the center a brilliant crimson. A single circle framed it, making it look simpler and more elegant than the one in her hair. This was the Faustian contract that Alois used to have on his tongue before Claude Faustus, his demon butler, had killed him. Or rather, he finished him off. Ciel had delivered the sword to the gut that had mortally wounded him, then Claude killed him. Then he woke up in Ciel's body, made a contract with Hannah Annafeloz and then died again. Then he woke up in his own body in the middle of nowhere and he was a demon. And he noticed the contract was gone, as Claude was dead. Unlike the star in the girls hair, the symbol didn't glow or reflect light at all. It was dull. It almost seemed to absorb light.

Lizzy stared at the girl. She is so adorable! Her long bangs stopped just above her lily pad green eyes. "She's beautiful." Lizzy whispered. She had a petite nose and thin pink lips. She had multiple piercings running up the length of her ear and one on her eyebrow. She had a dark gray sweater on over a red striped shirt and coral colored pants. She had on fingerless gloves going about halfway to her elbows and a chain belt hanging loosely off her hips. "I can't take it anymore, 'Minimal Interaction' my bum!" Lizzy whisper yelled. She zoomed over to the girls desk. "Hi! I'm Lizzy, whats you're name?" she introduced herself a little to cheerfully.

The girl looked up at her, a surprised and dangerous look in her eyes. She was shocked anyone would just walk over and talk to her so casually. She had a reputation of tough girl of few word that communicates with her fists. Why wasn't this girl intimidated by her? "I'm Maylene Croatia." she grunted and Lizzy heard her voice clear as day, even though Maylene had muttered it.

"Oh, Maylene! That's so pretty!" Lizzy called. In reality her name reminded her of Ciel's old maid, Mey-Rin, the way she pronounced her name in that cute accent of hers. "You're very pretty too, a pretty face to match a pretty name! You also have a beautiful accent, American, is it?"

Maylene cocked her head to the side. This girl's way of talking was odd. The way her sentences were put together, even her accent sounded old fashioned. Like she was from one of the books or movies from the 19th century. "Thanks. Yes, I moved here from the U.S. a little over a year ago." she acknowledged the waterfall of compliments pouring from the girls mouth. She spoke slowly, cautiously and quietly, like she was afraid of being mocked.

"You know, you really should speak up more. You have a pretty voice, but no one can hear it because you're too quiet." Lizzy had a serious moment, where she spoke very seriously. Then she was sent back to Cute Land and started babbling poor Maylene's ear off with questions about where she bought her outfit and where she got her hair done- teenage girl crap. When Maylene suddenly jumped up.

"Do you _ever_ stop talking! I'm sick of all these questions! I don't get my hair done anywhere, it's like this naturally!" she scrunched her face up in anger. "So shut up and leave me alone, you b-!" she snapped her eyes open. Her fiery, red eyes. You know how they say eyes are a gateway to the soul? Well demons don't have souls, so their eyes are gateways to a whole other _dimension_. Upon will or when they are doing magic, or if they were just mad, the color in their eyes would disappear and be replaced with the fires of Hell. Just like Maylene's were at that very moment.

Lizzy's eyes widened. Maylene was human. She had a very human aura, so why were her eyes glowing like that? "Oh, my. I'm quite sorry for pestering you about it then." she apologized for asking her the onslaught of questions that led to this. She curtsied along with apologizing like they would in the Victorian Era. She knew it was a bit to old fashioned, but it was how she had been raised and old habits like that die hard. She wasn't visibly fazed by the glowing eyes, they were quite common in the Phantomhive house these days. But her insides were churning with questions. Why were her eyes glowing? Why wasn't she apologizing, both for her eyes and the rude word she said? Why... The list goes on. "Ciel, Alois get over here, you may-no _will_- want to see this." she whispered to quietly for any of the humans in the room to hear, even the girl one foot away from her.

"Who are Ciel and Alois?" Maylene asked, "Why did you talk that quietly! I could hardly hear you. Who you talking to?" Maylene cocked her head curiously.

Lizzy's eyes widened in shock. No human should be able to hear her. "Now." she added so quietly that she could barely even hear herself.

"What is it?" she heard Ciel's cool voice, so quiet it was almost hard to hear him, adding in the noise of the room, but she managed. And Maylene did as well, she noticed.

Maylene looked at the odd group. Was that the Alois and Ciel she had been calling out to before? She had said it awful quietly, Maylene who was only a foot away could hardly hear her, so how could those boys? They made a very funny group, the three of them. The boy with blue hair was easily the shortest, by about six inches. The girl with the drill curls- Lizzy- was tied for height with the other blonde who also had almost white hair.

The two boys had very powerful auras that even a human could pick up on, a air about them. The most prominent was the blond's look at me, obey me or else aura. He wasn't very deep, that was all. His emotions ran very close to the surface. The blunette's character was deeper. He was more authoritative, more menacing if things didn't go his way. He was the kind of person who would wait to take revenge, wait until the recipient had forgotten all about it. She knew who was in charge of that group.

The group had things in common. When the blunette had spoken, he had the same accent, same way of forming his words as Lizzy. They also had black nails, all of them. They weren't glossy black, like they had painted them, no. they were black, and got almost white as it reached their fingers. They each held themselves upright, very good posture.

"What is it Lizzy?" the blonde asked, glaring at Maylene. "You didn't call us over just to meet you're friend did you? Your message was to urgent for that." he smiled slightly, and that was the only indicator that he was joking. He tugged on one of her many drill curls. She slapped him across the face, and from the sound it made, she hit him hard. Really hard. "Domestic violence _please_!" he laughed it off like it was nothing. He didn't even rub at the red hand mark appearing on his face.

"Leave her alone, Alois." the blunette scolded him. Ah, so the blonde was Alois, and the short one was Ciel. Saved for future reference.

"Look at her eyes, before they stop." that surprised them, even Maylene. '_Before they stop'_?

"Whats wrong with my eyes?" that earned a surprise from the boys, they had been talking too quietly for her to hear. That was also the moment they noticed the fire in her eyes, although they could tell she was human. "Everyone always thinks that somethings wrong with my eyes! I have 20/20 vision, and they are well within the natural color range! But sometimes people do walk away muttering about devil eyes... hm" she inquired aloud.

"Yes, I suppose that would be the common reaction to this." Lizzy let the fires shine through her own eyes, just for a moment. Just long enough for Maylene to get a good look at them.

"What the blazes...?" Maylene muttered to herself.

"Oh, now that's something I should talk to you about," Lizzy looked her in the eye. "I don't like that word you just used. Or the one you used earlier. Frankly, I don't like any cuss words." she smiled sweetly, " You see, maybe you should work on breaking that bad habit." Lizzy walked to her own seat leaving the gaping and thoroughly intimidated girl behind.

"Bloody..." she muttered.

"Don't like cussing!" Lizzy called back at her without turning around.

At just that moment, the bell decided to announce the beginning of the day, trilling through the school so loud and shrilly, Lizzy almost covered her ears to protect them. The bell was so loud, enhanced by super hearing. It was physically painful.

"All right, class take your seats." the teacher finally decided to make an appearance. She was a short, plump woman with short red hair and thick overly-round glasses. She tripped over her own combat boot on the way in. Several snickers rose from the students, but one girl who was easily the shortest kid in the school, got up to help her. "Oh, no! Don't help me dearie, I'm fine, really!" she had a high scratchy voice, and it felt good to Lizzy, comforting. Alois didn't feel the same way.

"Maybe you should spend less time yelling, and more time watching where you're going." Alois cat called from his desk in the back of the room.

"Alois! That was rude!" Lizzy scolded, looking back at him. She instantly felt sorry for the poor boy. He was gripping the sides of his head, covering his ears. Tears leaked out of his eyes and he looked pained. _Oh, the noise is getting to him._ Lizzy was used to all the sounds of a place full of humans- she was co-owner of the Funtom Company after all- but Alois wasn't. All the sounds humans made by just being alive were hurting him, to the point of pain and irritability. "I'm sorry, you just have to get used to it." she whispered very quietly.

The teacher acted unfazed by his little outbreak. "Good morning, class, I'm Ms. Clemens." she introduced happily.

"Good morning Ms. Clemens." the class repeated back to her. Not a whisper circulated the room.

"On your desks you will find a worksheet and a sticky note with a name on it. That will be your partner. You will fill out this work sheet and then turn it into me at the end of class in... fifty minutes." she looked up at the clock. "Get to work!" she sat behind her desk and clacked away on the computer.

Ciel gingerly lifted the paper note off his desk and read the name written in the teacher's messy scrawl. Celeste Minerva, desk 16. He looked up at the desk and saw that she sat right next to Elizabeth, in the row in front of him. He could only see the back of her head, but that was enough that he could tell she would not get up for any thing. Her hair just barely managed to reach the tops of her shoulders and it was a gray-turquoise color, like his own, but lighter and greener. He saw her crumble up the sticky note and throw it on the floor. "Stuck with the bloody orphan..." he heard her curse under her breath._ I'm just going to pretend she didn't say that._ This was going to be fun.

He stood and walked over to her, at a dreadfully slow pace. "Hello, I'm Ciel Phantomhive. I will assume you are Celeste Minerva, due to this." he help up the slip of paper and read it. Sure enough, it said Ciel Phantomhive in the same messy scrawl.

"Ciel's a girls name, by the way. I was expecting you to be a girl." she muttered. She even sounded a little mad that he wasn't.

"Yes, I do seem to get that a lot. Where I grew up it was used for girls and boys." it wasn't really a concept of 'where' he grew up but 'when'. But he couldn't just say that, it would sound odd.

She jerked her head up, letting him get a glance at a pair of vibrant amethyst violet eyes. The color stood out quite shockingly against her long bangs that covered her left eye. "Listen up, Ciel, I'm only going to say this once. I'm only working with you for school, only for a grade, got it? I would never be friends with a dirty orphan like you. It would kill my reputation at this school. If you try to approach me in a social environment, I will personally make your life an awful place to live in. I am the daughter of a noble family, and you are an orphan. Are we clear?" she asked him, looking ready to hit him.

"Crystal." he replied, smiling slightly at this new game, and he was going to get as mush fun out of it as possible. "It is perfectly clear to me that you are a spoiled brat that bases all her popularity in her title as a noble. Without it, you'd crumble away into nothingness. All your friendships are either the result of bullying tho other child into it, buying them, or blackmailing them with your status. You can't live without a status, you're completely dependent on it. Your hold on this school is so fragile, you're afraid a couple pf orphans could just waltz on in and steal it all away from you. Truly pathetic." if this had been the old days, when he was remorseless, Ciel knew he would have taken it farther, torturing the poor girl. He could see the anger and hurt in her eyes. That would have goaded him to keep going, to push harder and harder until she broke. Now he knew such things would be immature and decided to leave it at that, adding in a evil smirk. "And so I agree with you on one point; I will never hang out with you in a social setting. It would injure my pride beyond repair to be seen with the likes of you." Celeste promptly snapped her jaw shut. How dare he?!

_You'd better watch out Phantomhive,_ she thought, glaring at him for all she was worth, _with an attitude like that you're not going to make many friends, and you've already made an enemy, probably the worst one yet; me._

"Let's get to work on the paper." she managed to choke out through tears that she would not permit to fall.

* * *

Alois lifted up his sticky note and wearily read the name written on it. Erickson Abberts, desk one. He looked up to see who exactly he was going to be dealing with and was greeted by a boy with wild brown hair and caramel eyes that danced with a crazy light.

"Hi! I'm Erickson- Eric for short! You're Alois Trancy, right?" he had a high voice that rivaled the blond's own claim as most feminine boy around. They both had that kind of face that at first glance, it could get really confusing weather they were a boy or a girl. It was like on of those T.V. shows where you have to play 'Guess the Gender', except if you guessed wrong there will be hurt feelings to deal with. And with their voices it was no question for the gender- girl. That made phone conversations really awkward. The phrase 'I'm actually a dude' tends to kill a conversation.

"Yes, hello. I'm Alois." Alois whispered. He reached out to shake the boy's extended hand. He gripped it tenderly, as not to break him.

"Geezums!" Erick reclaimed his hand from the other boy's icy grip. "Your hand is freezing!" he rubbed his hand, trying to get warmth back into it. _whoops_ Alois thought to himself, _and here we are, trying not to stand out, so what do I do? I shake his hand!_ Demons hearts beat very weakly, and the blood that does eventually get to their muscles isn't even oxygenated, resulting in a cold body temperature.

"Oh, sorry." Alois quickly shoved his hand under his desk. _Don't stand out!_ He cursed himself. Having an average body temperature of seventeen degrees kinda stands out! "Alright, lets work on the paper." Alois read the title 'Get to Know Your Classmate!' it read. It made Alois want to barf. Why would he want to know his classmate?

"Okay!" the other boy shouted before launching into a monologue of a bunch random crap that had nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Alois gripped the sides of his head, covering his ears. "Let's just focus on the paper we can talk later." _Not_. Anything to get the boy to stop squealing in his ear. It was physically painful. Alois, Ciel, and Lizzy were all very soft-spoken, to the point where the were almost whispering. It wasn't because the were shy-the blonds were anything but-it was because everything sounds louder to them. All demons have heightened hearing, so their gentle whispers sound like a normal conversation would to a human. A humans normal conversation level to them is like shouting, and here was this boy being loud by even human terms, and then paired with his high voice... it was like running a cheese grater over Alois' nerves.'

"Okay, do-do-do~" Eric hummed to himself while scanning the page. "Here! Favorite food?" Why did it have to be _that_ question? Demons don't eat human food and 'Human Souls' probably wasn't the best answer to give. So Alois thought back to his days of a human, muddled with his raging emotions from back then. "Greasy fish and chips." he finally answered. "You?" knowing that boy it would probably be something odd.

"Crisps." he answered while writing Alois' answer down in a messy scrawl.

"Oh, that's..." surprisingly normal. Alois wrote down his answer in flowing cursive, very fancy but still easy to read. It was like that for a couple of questions, Eric would ask and Alois would come up with a lie on the spot. In between each question Eric babbled a little bit more.

"... and then the ostrich almost bit his head off!" Eric concluded another one of his fantastical stories.

"Shut up!" Alois had enough of this torture. "How 'bout, instead of us asking each other questions and filling it out, we just pass each other the paper and fill it out accordingly. Kay?" that way he at least wouldn't have to create lies as he went aloud.

"That's a great idea!" Eric agreed. He still talked the whole time, but they got it done, just as the bell rung.

* * *

Lizzy lifted the paper off her desk and internally squealed in excitement. Maylene Croatia, desk five. It was the girl from before! She knew the two of them were going to be best friends!

"Elizabeth Midford..." she heard Maylene mutter under her breath. "It couldn't be that girl from before, could it? No, no 'Elizabeth' is a name for someone with class, not that hyperactive, annoying blond." Lizzy's face fell. That's Maylene thought of her? Annoying? Hyperactive? Lizzy just wanted to be her friend.

Lizzy stood and made sure no one was looking before melting into the shadows. It felt like getting oil rubbed everywhere on her body before it all slid away, to anyone looking she would have turned black and then sputtered into shadows, like a water fall after the river has been blocked. Once inside the shadows, she felt cool and comforted, as that's where Fallen Angels feel at home the most. She let herself have a good cry, but only for a moment before pulling herself back together. She visualized Maylene's desk, and thought about herself coming out of the shadows there, and it happened. It looked exactly like going into the shadows, just in reverse.

"So, that's what you think of me?" Lizzy chocked out. She then realized she had spoken to quietly for humans to hear and that Ciel and Alois would be really confused "So, that's what you think of me?" she repeated in a stronger voice, so Maylene could hear. She meant to sound strong and confronting, but her voice quivered with tears from her time in the shadow land.

"Huh!" Maylene jumped and turned around to find it was just Lizzy. How had she gotten there that fast? She had only just gotten the words out of her mouth. Time flows differently in the shadow land, and so Lizzy could have been there for hours and only minutes would have passed in the land of the living.

"I'm Elizabeth Midford." Lizzy said quietly, and Maylene instantly felt guilty, for it seemed as though Lizzy was there the whole time she said that. Maylene could tell the poor girl was just one step away from tears. "Let's get to work." the sweet and bubbly act she put on had vanished and a shy, quiet Lizzy took her place.

"Alright." that made Maylene feel even worse. She felt almost as bad as Lizzy looked. "Sorry." she whispered so quietly she couldn't even hear herself.

"It's okay." Lizzy answered her silent apology, shocking the other girl. "So what's your favorite color?" her bubbly self resurfaced, chasing the shy one away.

"Purple," Maylene was shocked at how quickly the girl had gone from the edge of tears to smiling joyfully and asking questions like nothing had happened. Bipolar disorder? "You?"

"Pink!" Lizzy shouted like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's so cute!" she added as an explanation.

"Oh, that's nice." the two girls had the sheet done with plenty of time to spare. Lizzy babbled to Maylene, and the latter girl discreetly put ear buds in. "Hum," she added whenever it seemed like the other girl was wanting an explanation. The bell rang, signaling the end of class.

All their classes were like that. Go in, sit for forty five minutes while doing some kind of team-building exercise. And to soon it was the class all three of them were dreading. Fifth period. Lunch. Lizzy warily walked out of the room as soon as the fourth period bell rang, telling all seventh graders to go to lunch. She had barely taken one step into the hallway when a purple and blonde streak caught her attention.

"Alois?" she hissed, looking down the hallway. Then she had a sinking feeling in her gut, and knew what was going on. She ran down the hall after him, hoping to calm him from his hysterics. The last time he had been acting that way for long, things didn't go over well. The last time this had happened was eighty years ago, before Ciel knew he was even alive. "Alois!" she hissed again, in hot pursuit.

She found him, curled up in a little ball in the janitor's closet. His silvery blue eyes were wide and full of tears, and snot freely dribbled out of his nose. He looked up at her and more tears flowed over his long lashes. He raised up his open arms like he was about to hug her. It was an invitation, a plea. She leaned down and took the boy less then half her age in her arms and held him close, answering that plea. He wrapped his arms around her neck, snuggled his head into her shoulder and wrapped his legs around her midsection. To anyone who might have been looking on, it would've looked like a teenage girl holding her (big)little brother.

"Lizzy..." he sobbed into her shoulder, dampening her golden hair with tears.

"Sh...it's okay Luka, it's okay." she bounced slightly and tried to sooth the crying five-year-old.


End file.
